Once Upon A Time In America (DVD 2003)

They grew up in the violent immigrant ghetto of New York's Lower East Side: Max and Noodles, Cockeye and Patsy, Deborah and Fat Moe. They grew up on the streets and they grew up fast. Fighting their way to the top of the heap, they took a vow to stick together but that's not how things worked out. Leone's commanding epic traces the destinies of four men from childhood on the streets through their violent rise to power and maturity during Prohibition as fully fledged hoods. De Niro is magnificent as "Noodles" Aaronson, one of the four, forced by murder and betrayal to flee New York in 1933. When he is mysteriously summoned back in 1968, he discovers that the tragic and bloody events surrounding his betrayal are not as they once seemed...

'Once Upon A Time In America' is director Sergio Leone's astonishing gangster melodrama, an epic exploration of the dark side of the American dream. Ten years in the planning, Leone's film is the work of a master storyteller - grandly conceived, rich in detail and thrilling in the depth and originality of its vision.